Hiking Purisima Creek Redwoods Open Space Preserve (California)

The final hike while in California was the Purisima Creek Redwoods Open Space Preserve. After exploring the Marin Headlands the day before, we wanted a change of scenery and decided to go south. The Purisima Creek Redwoods Open Space Preserve is located on the western slopes of the Santa Cruz Mountains. Parts of the trail overlook Half Moon Bay.

I was excited to get a glimpse of the Redwood trees as I had never seen any in person. Now, coast redwoods are only found along the coast from Oregon to Monterey. The coast redwoods are the tallest trees in the world and can grow up to 360 feet tall. The oldest known age of a redwood is 2,200 years, but the average is 500 to 1,000 year old.

We decided to do the Purisima Creek Trail. It was once an old logging road. It can get steep, and some of the grade was about 15%. The views are worth it, and it was one of my favorite hikes of the trip. We ended up hiking about 6 miles or so.

Hiking through California was a lot of fun. Even though it was the shortest, my favorite was the Anderson County Park, but I enjoyed each of them. Each was different and unique.

Anderson Park was a surprising and beautiful dam. I’ve never hiked a Volcano until Calavera Hills. Marin Headlands had beautiful views on the entire route. The Los Robles Trail was fun to get out of traffic for a while and of course, seeing my first Redwoods at the Purisma Trail was wonderful too. I hope to be back to California again and check out some more different hikes.